The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1887-12-01
Morris. Mimi, Dec. LIST, 1887
Official Paper Of the City.
BACON OR ShAkESPEARe7
Concluded. J

In Julius Cesar not an ideal ancient
Rome. but the real one is accurately
portrayed.
In the Italian plays, The Merchant
of Venice. Tanning of the Shrew and
Two Gentlemen of Verna, intimate
acquaintance in small details is shown
with Italian towns and manners Of
PEOPLE.
Tie Comedy of Errors is discover.
cd in these latter days to be identical
in argument with the Mehechmi Of
Plautus, then hardly known and un
translated.
lagos speech, "Who steals my
purse steals trash" is perfect para.
phrase of Il stanza in Berni's untrans-
lated poem, Orlando lnnamorato.
In Two Gentlemen of Verona, Val.
tntine is made TO embark at Verona
for Milan, aud in Hamlet, Bapiista is
fused az the name of woman. III
another play Bohemia is referred to
AS having u seacoast. These things
were sneered at as mistakes for some
hundred years, until one learned Ger
man discovers that Baptista is not
uncomInonly used al a woman's name
in Italy, another learned German that
in the sixteenth century Milan and
Verona were connected by canals.
whilst third has discovered that
bohemia formerly included a much
larger tract Of country than it does
now, and stretch down to the coast.
The above are few, out Of the
many instances.
What inducement could Shakespeare,
the manager of the Globe and Black
frlars Theatre, have had to introduce
carefully studied details and dark and
subtle illusions such as these! 1t was
not this out.of the-way knowledge
and learning in the plays that would
draw, for very few of those who at
tended the representations could pre-
ceive or appreciate It.
1t must have been introduced for
he satisfaction Of the writer of the
plays. who must have been no novice,
but learned aud cultivated man,
who was imbued and could play with
his knowledge. He must have had
blocks of his own or have had access
10 the best libraries of the day. He
must have been deep reader and
thinker, man whose mind was not
only we'll stored but teeming and
Drumming over with knowledge.
Even if there were no person to
these wonderful plays could be fitly
attributed the inference would have
been the same: there must have been
some very clever and erudlte men In
the background who wrote them.
And what is there unlikely in the
notion that Shakespeare, the busy
and successful theatrical manager. a
well-to-do, prosperous. bustling man,
should have kept play-writer'
whose brains he used to write his
piavs. Shakespeare taste lay in the
bringing out Of plays and manage
ment of the stage business. This
work of selection Of the plays and OF
the actors, the choice of the caste.
and the rehearsals IS nowadays one
mans work especially in bringing out
plays Of such leangth as Shake
speare's. This must have been much
more the case three hundred years
ago. when the business was not SO
well understand, and actors were not
so educated and intelligent class az
now. Shakespeare 8 object, which he
attained, was to make his theater pay
anu IuNh0 uOACIs SO1 I" % sAS
by land and retire to his native place
PIaywriting was iabOriOus, not
paying, business. Four or five pounds
was the stock price, it is believed. OF
play IN those days. Shakespeare
would not have grown rich. as he did,
if he had employed his labors and en-
crgies FIRST in acquiring the learning
and literary skill necessary to write
the Plays; aud, secondly. in writing
them. His contemporaries. Ben Jon
son and Bacon, both literary men Of
the first order, were poor men for The
greater part OF their lives, whilst
Shakespeare, the actor and theater
manager, grew rich, and lent Ber
JvnsOn money.
No. surely, there is nothing un
reasonable in the theory that some
able man in the the background wrote
the plays; some one who had gOot
reason for keeping bic name unknown
and who was satisfied to use as hi!
cover Shakespeare. the popular thea
ter-manager Of the day. who, at al
events for the time, was TO be allowed
the credit of them.